


Alea Iacta Est

by ChocolateRulez



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School
Genre: AU, All other characters besides Hinanami is only mentioned, F/M, Introspection, Love, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, angst at end BUT VERY LIGHTLY, blooming friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-11-30 17:21:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11468148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocolateRulez/pseuds/ChocolateRulez
Summary: Chiaki's die had been cast the moment she met Hajime.





	Alea Iacta Est

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying so hard to keep up with the days but I keep making my fics too long omg  
> This was supposed to be for day 4: TalentSwap. But I'm a hoE WHO CANT MAKE MY FICS SHORT ENOUGH AND IM SORRY.

  Chiaki yawned exasperatedly as she raised her gaze towards the colossal building that loomed over her. It cast an intimidating shadow on her petite figure, but she found herself inhaling a sharp breath before stepping towards the smaller building conjoined with Hope's Peak Academy.

  
Her first day attending the Reserve Course was utterly uneventful, as she had typically expected. She found herself twiddling her fingers more often than actually tuning in to her teachers' and classmates' introductions. Every single one of her classmates were more involved in their own affairs, too busy daydreaming what their first day at the actual Hope's Peak Building could've been like if they had harbored something fantastical enough that can be labeled as talent. But alas, they were all here in the dull and monotone classroom that was constantly overlooked, all wishfully thinking for the same thing.

  
Chiaki gritted her teeth, the underlying pressure of the room only making her more stressed than she had before she stepped into the classroom. This Reserve Course had to fill up some gigantic shoes that may as well just be impossible, and she never kept her composure well under pressure and surrounded by others.

  
"Sensei," she called out, shattering the fragile and nervous chatter that surrounded the classroom and bounced off the walls. Some people silenced themselves over her slight inquiry, but others continued their boring conversations as if their minds weren't preoccupied with more jealous notions.

  
"May I head to the fountain? I'd like some fresh air," Chiaki's voice, once loud in order to overpower the overwhelming sum of voices in the room, was a soft whisper by the end of her sentence, a murmur amongst all of the bubbling thoughts in her head.

Was it possible to feel so alone in a room teeming with people?

  
She was afraid she'd end up in the same friendless situation as her elementary and middle school days. Chiaki just didn't understand why she couldn't connect with the other students in her class as easily as everyone else. She felt suffocated by her own thoughts, and desperately hoped that some fresh air would cleanse her mind and she would enter the classroom again with a brand new mindset. One that was more open to actually making friends.

  
The teacher nodded, almost dazedly. He most likely hadn't expected one of his students to ask a question like that. Mostly they asked to go to the bathroom, but never outside. The Reserve Course students always found themselves excessively sweating when under Hope's Peak buildings, their pressure only rapidly increasing once the Academy became more focused in their view.

  
Chiaki hurried out of the classroom, breathing a deep sigh of relief as she shut the door behind her. She was already gradually beginning to feel better once she had a set goal in mind. She didn't waste a minute as she scurried across the hallway and exited the smaller building with a hefty push of the two front doors.

  
Just by heading to the fountain, she could already espy the warm orange hues coalescing with the bright blue atmosphere, creating an almost dreamlike quality to the fountain. Shadowed by such complex colors made the white of the fountain pop out, the rivulets of water almost becoming another color entirely. Chiaki sat at the edge of the fountain, shutting her eyes as she felt her frazzled mind begin to relax completely. A few minutes at the fountain would clear her convoluted thoughts, untangling them as if they were an intricate web that can be easily unraveled with just the pull of a single string.

  
Just before she was going to open her eyes and head back to the classroom, she felt a sharp pain on her right foot as someone stumbled over it. A grunt followed right after as her eyes shot open and she clutched her foot in pain.

  
"I-I'm so sorry!" A masculine voice filled her ears as she saw emerald eyes lift up from their handheld console to clash with her light pink-tinted ones. Both sets of eyes widened in mild shock, perhaps due to the fact that they hadn't considered the possibility that someone else may have been at the fountain, albeit for themselves. Chiaki watched as the young teenager in front of her, she guessed he was even close to her own age, straightened himself out.

She noticed that his hands hadn't paused in their rapid smashing of the console's buttons, despite how he couldn't even see the screen now that his eyes were glued onto hers.

  
Seconds after, she stood up just as she heard a victory bell chime in a staccato rhythm from his screen. She was amazed at how he could still beat the game without even eying it.

  
He seemed to have noticed her bewilderment, and he scratched the back of his head shyly, a faint blush tinting his cheeks. "I've played this game over sixteen times this past month. I know this game from the back of my hand, at this point," he admitted sheepishly as he averted his gaze from hers and back at the console.

  
Curiosity piqued her interest. A rather astounding amount of times someone can play a video game without actually getting bored with it. "And why's that?" She questioned softly, voice unused to actually speaking to another teenager as herself.

  
"Why's what?" He was busily occupied with the game again, but this was the only conversation she had all day that wasn't with an adult, and she was confident enough from her brief time at the fountain that she wanted to befriend him.

  
"Why would you play Xevious sixteen times in a single month?" She calmly elaborated as he stared at her with eager fascination. She observed how he coughed awkwardly to keep himself from shouting at her his next question, posing it as more of a calm inquiry.

  
"You play Xevious?"

  
"It's a classic. I suppose everyone has played it at some point. . ."

  
The boy scoffed at that, now pausing the next level he was in to focus back on the girl in front of him. She realized that whenever he kept his gaze focused on her for more than ten seconds, the blush in his cheeks would become a shade deeper before he would avert his eyes again.

  
How cute, she found herself thinking before stepping forward to him. His response to her proximity was immediate, and he sputtered out, "Seems like nobody seems to appreciate retro games anymore these days, that's why I'm surprised. A-And the fact that a girl like you is playing it. . . are you an Ultimate Gamer too?"

  
The bemused expression on Chiaki's face was only amplified as she furrowed his eyebrows at him. It took only a matter of seconds for her to connect the scattered dots in her brain and understand what his awkward self had been attempting to convey.

  
She wasn't afraid to muffle her own eagerness as he had previously done, and she took another step towards him until her nose was practically touching his. "You're an Ultimate? Wow! How is it like being an Ultimate, how is Hope's Peak Academy?!"

  
This time she failed to notice how his countenance had become achingly similar to a ripened tomato with her proximity, and he stumbled over himself to back away from her. He tentatively placed one hand on her shoulder to keep the pretty-looking girl in front of him at a respectable distance while he gripped his console tightly in the other hand.

  
"Please calm down!" he shouted out from her impeding questions that were being fired at an alarming speed, and she surprisingly obeyed. Her expression returned to the dull curiosity her empty eyes harbored once again.

  
He almost found himself wishing for her eyes to fill up with that eager curiosity, if it meant her eyes would contain more light than this. But he felt his embarrassment had reached its maximum peak today, and he didn't want to excite her too much to leave him flustered again.

  
"I don't seem to understand why you're so adamant on knowing how my life as an Ultimate is like," he began, his voice slow, a hint that he was trying to plan out these words before he would speak them aloud to her. "But it's not very different from your life. I'm just. . ." he lifted up his other hand to show her his verdant-tinted console, which was now gleaming with another victory sign on his screen, ". . .hunched over a video game the majority of my time. In fact, I'd say your life is probably better than mine," he concluded uneasily, and it was apparent he wasn't used to speaking with people of the opposite sex that were his age.

This would've mildly comforted Chiaki if it weren't for his disturbingly inaccurate words.

  
Of course his life as an Ultimate was more fulfilling than what she was living through now. She lived in a state of perpetual loneliness and was surrounded by only her talentless self. She wished she had this set goal in life, something that made her feel happy and contented. She always felt miserable with the dull events of her life.

Being unable to socialize with other peers could make a significant impact on someone like that.

  
At least Hajime was able to lean on his video games. Sure, he may be just as lonely as her, but judging by the smallest of smiles he had on his face while he viewed his screen, he was at least decently satisfied with his life right now. He had his own company in the form of electronic devices that never failed to show him the same results of his easygoing efforts. It was almost as if his life had been cut out from the beginning, to be overflowing with little technological consoles and her life was to be filled with only emptiness.

  
It seemed so unfair, so unfair that he didn't understand why her obsession with entering Hope's Peak Academy was steadily growing each day. But she only clamped her mouth shut and puffed out her cheeks at him.

  
"I'm not. . .obsessed. Just curious is all," she managed to say through her puffed out cheeks. Although she wanted to rant to this random and charming boy that he knew next to nothing about how living up to everyone's impossibly high expectations can make you into the hollowed-out shell she was now, she only kept quiet. She didn't want to lash out at someone who didn't deserve it.

  
He seemed to have taken notice of her despondent expression and placed his hand lightly on her shoulder. He opened his mouth, as if he were to say something, before they heard a female voice call out.

  
"Hinata Hajime!" The voice yelled, and he flinched at the authoritative tone and its high volume. They both turned to their right and saw a ginger-haired woman dragging some overweight kid behind her, who was seemingly screaming for bloody mercy. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

  
"You have? I thought. . ."

  
"Oh?" The young woman's bright, inquisitive eyes turned towards Chiaki, dismissing Hajime's beginning of an excuse, and she gave a kind smile in greeting. "I see you've already made a friend with this young girl!"

  
Hajime shyly turned his eyes towards his console. Now he was pressing those buttons with a renewed purpose, trying to hone in on the game instead of at the awkward conversation he was unwillingly reeled in to participate. Chiaki only gave a polite thank-you in response.

  
"What Ultimate talent do you. . ."

  
"No," Chiaki immediately interrupted, wanting to wipe the glowing idea out of the woman's mind, "I'm not an Ultimate."

  
Hajime darted his eyes to her face, puzzled as to how she can be in the school grounds if she didn't possess an Ultimate talent. That's what Hope's Peak was known for, after all.

  
"I'm in the Reserve Course," she explained, and the woman's eyes darkened with an apologetic understanding.

  
"Reserve Course. . .?" Hajime had begun to question, before the teacher yanked him away from Chiaki and dragged him towards the building all Ultimates were supposed to reside in.

  
Not lounging in the fountain conversing with talentless girls such as herself, she thought, but it wasn't bitter. The entire ordeal made her feel more relaxed than when she was about to depart from the fountain, which she hadn't expected.

  
She couldn't find herself staying angry at Hajime for having an Ultimate Talent. He was a kind boy that seemed to have good intentions in mind, anyways. And his blush did mirror hers, and that meant something. . . right?

  
She found herself waving back to him, whose figure was gradually becoming smaller and smaller until he was a dot in the horizon. A small dot, but a little dot nonetheless that reminded her even socially awkward boys intent on finishing his video game can find the time to be flustered by her.  

* * *

  Spending a few more days at the fountain with the dorky gamer gave Chiaki a small insight into Hajime's life, and she was mildly shocked once she discovered that it wasn't anything spectacular. He came from a normal family, who resided in a conventional household, where his parents earned the standard amount of middle-class earnings. She also uncovered the fact that he wasn't a person who carried any dorky qualities at all, albeit for his love of video games.

  
He was a rather serious and pensive individual, who didn't seem to blush as often as their first meeting once he had gotten used to the notion of being friends with Chiaki. They would bask in comfortable silences together as they sat at the fountain and leisurely played video games that Hajime dutifully brought with him each day. Not once did she beat him in any of the video games they played together, but that was expected when she recalled what his Ultimate Talent was.

  
She often wondered if she would've been as skilled as him if she actually noticed the numerous amount of gifts her parents brought her in exchange for their lack of attention. They mostly included toys and the newest video games, but she would only feel extremely inadequate whenever she played with one of their gifts.

  
As if she accepted the fact that she was as valuable to them as all of the materialistic things they brought her. The unfortunate result was a pile of video games being carelessly tossed in a cardboard box that was shoved in the back of her closet, and now she was considering giving Hajime the box of her childhood.

  
He would find better use of it anyways.

  
"Nanami?" A deep voice called out, and she looked up at Hajime's piercing gaze. Despite how he was mostly glued to his GameGirl Advance, he was somehow also incredibly attuned to his surroundings and of the people around him. He must've noticed the complicated expression she was blatantly wearing on her face.

  
"Aw, seems I lost again," she commented in an effort to distract him, which she ended up succeeding. Having noticed the victory sign on his screen, he began to fish in his bag for another game they could play together. Every time she would note of her loss during their intense gameplay, which was more often than not, he'd end up searching for some other game they hadn't played together yet. She didn't understand whether or not he would feel guilty and not want to play the same game twice, or if he was mildly curious as to whether or not she would beat his high score in another one. Her scores were generally more average compared to his, but she appreciated the vast variety of games she was being introduced to.

  
But there was a burning question in the back of her mind that hadn't left since she had met him, and she didn't want to be dragged into another round of playing before she addressed it.

She had previously attempted to introduce the question to him beforehand, but he'd somehow begin to tell her of the origin of the main character's overalls or how the enemy was actually the hero in the original franchise, and she'd find herself being interested in the game's background and mechanics. Chiaki never realized how fascinating all these video games were before Hajime eased her into it. But her curiosity was much stronger than some retro game's original controls were.

"Hinata-kun?" She asked, veering him from giving her another tactical explanation. His attention was now fully averted, his verdant orbs zeroed in on hers. "Why are you spending most of your time with me instead of your classmates? Wouldn't you want to be with your other fellow Ultimates?" The pressure in her chest evaporated, reminiscent of a deflating balloon now that the question was finally out.

But with the inquiry finally being vocalized, Chiaki felt as if she were a self-deprecating individual rather than just simply being curious. Who wouldn't rather be in a classroom where they can be making some prospective friends? Hajime had that door of potential possibility still wide open for it, but after a certain amount of time no one in his classroom would want to befriend him anymore.

She of all people would know about that.

  
Hajime turned away, his countenance as steely as ever. If she peered any closer, she could've glimpsed at the disappointment swimming in his eyes.

"Nanami-san, our class isn't as united as you think it is. We're all dysfunctional with our differing talents that. . .!" Hajime gripped his handheld console tighter until his knuckles whitened, ". . .that they don't seem to understand the main reason as to why they're there!" His voice escalated along with his fervent ardor for his classmates.

She hadn't seen him act out in any way in front of her before, even if it were something as small as raising his voice a few more octaves. He definitely harbored more emotion than her, and for a minute she felt vines of envy ensnaring her ribcage and constricting her from breathing correctly. But it disappeared as quickly as it came, along with the brief burst of emotional anger.

  
She was puzzled on what he was trying to convey. What actual reason would they be there for? He must've noticed the bewilderment in her face, because soon after he sighed.

  
"Why do you think Hope's Peak decides to recruit several students each year who exceed in their field?" He questioned, not pausing to hear her response before firing the next one. "Why are people with all of these different talents hoarded into one room on their first day, but are not required to enter that classroom for the rest of the school year?"

  
Chiaki hadn't known about that. She automatically thought that the Ultimates were given an easier environment to work in, but how could they if they weren't getting along?

  
Hajime snapped her out of her wistful reverie with his bitter voice. “Nanami-san, the reason as to why Hope’s Peak scouted all of us was to give us an opportunity to continue honing our talents. The reason we came to this Academy was not to chit-chat with some Ultimate Nurse or Dancer because that’s not our talent. My class continues to endlessly clash with each other because we keep being forced by our teacher to adhere to each other’s whims. This Academy is renowned for shaping these students who are ‘excellent’ in their talent to being ‘outstanding’. And I can’t continue on polishing my talent if the other Ultimates are sparring each other in the center of the classroom,” he bitterly concluded, leaving Chiaki to be surprised as to how pessimistic he was about his situation.

  
She had always assumed that he of all people would understand that being secluded by the rest of their classmates is incredibly lonely. And he wasn’t willing to change that simply because he wanted to keep his title of Ultimate Gamer?

Suddenly she could envision all of the emotional and mental pressure these Ultimates had to go through, which was probably even double the amount of what she was feeling. They had no time to be friendly with each other if they have to compete with everyone’s expectations of them.

  
But. . . she could still find herself disagreeing with his words.

  
"Well. . ." She found herself struggling to respond, ". . . I think they want to make sure those Ultimates don't feel alone."

She ignored the utter confusion in Hajime's expression and continued, her timid voice steadily growing more and more confident as she gathered the words in her mind. "I think that Hope's Peak wanted to create an environment where people with astounding talents can all gather in one place and create connections. All of these people can gather their ideas and not be afraid of flaunting their talent, because they’re surrounded by others as eccentric as them. And I think they should change that rule of them not being required to attend class every day! Just going off to your own corner and trying to develop your talent won’t work without the help of others, Hinata-kun. Using your talent with others can make you more of a well-rounded person. What would Hope Peak’s ideal graduate be? Someone who spent all their time to develop their singular talent, or someone who has become more of a complex person and whose talent has been improved upon by other talents?”

  
She had never actually thought about Hope’s Peak scouting reasons before, but it made much more sense than whatever nonsensical things Hajime was spouting at her. A school would want their students to socialize!

  
“You won’t just be the Ultimate Gamer. You’d be the Ultimate Gamer who can use his games as medical therapy for patients with ADHD if you worked with the Ultimate Nurse and saw what games would be most viable. You’d be the Ultimate Gamer who can identify which types of music in games can be improved upon so it would make them want to get up and dance every time they won if you cooperated with the Ultimate Dancer to find it out. You can do many things with your talent, but you just can’t do it alone!”

  
Hajime’s silence was soon acknowledged by Chiaki once her excitement dimmed down, and she pursed her lips as she awaited his response. Why did it feel like she had just said the wrong thing to him? It felt right in her head, and still did. If she were an Ultimate, she would want to befriend the other Ultimates. She wouldn’t feel as lonely anymore because they all must have gone through the same thing. To be outstanding in their talent meant they didn’t go through any normal circumstances compared to others.

  
Why couldn’t she have a talent?

Seclusion from the rest of her peers had given her more time in her hands when she was younger, and now she wished she had spent that time searching for what could’ve been her talent instead of just patiently waiting for her parents to return home.

  
“I had never considered it that way,” he muttered, his index finger brushing over the power button of his console before he pressed down. His screen faded to black, and before she could ask why he was turning off his game, he continued. “To me, being the Ultimate Gamer was just that. The title. The fact that I have a talent.”

  
She followed suit, listening as she powered her own console off and stuffed it in her backpack. Chiaki kept her satisfied grin from showing as he continued.

  
“I didn’t want to be just an ordinary person, Nanami-san. I wanted to be someone important. I felt like I had more potential than the rest of my classmates, and because of that they’d laugh at me. That’s why I found myself rushing over to the arcade and see myself win another round of Xevious because it meant that I was good at something. To my parents, talent is everything. I was told that Hope’s Peak would change me, but I had to remember to stay focused on my talent. To not get distracted.”

  
Did Hajime know that his leisurely gameplays with her every day wasn’t exactly good enough practice for his talent in the first place? She was an easy opponent to beat. If he were truly vying to develop his talent, he would’ve ignored her and tried to find a better opponent. He must’ve known that. He claimed he didn’t want to adhere to his classmates’ whims, but he adhered to her self-indulgent whim of having pleasant company, and she liked the idea of that.

  
She liked the idea that he was kind enough to sit with her each afternoon and laugh with her whenever she’d make some stupid mistake during an intense battle. He was kind enough to actually find it cute whenever she pouted at her numerous losses. Kind enough to promise her he’d come see her again the next day, even if it was because they were both equally lonely.

  
She laughed, a melodic sound that urged Hajime to begin laughing too. “Hinata-kun, even I know that talent isn’t everything! Talent is cultivated with the encouragement of others. Haven’t you ever realized that even the most successful people have someone to thank for aiding them? You would have been an outstanding person even if you weren’t the Ultimate Gamer.”

  
He scoffed, but she didn’t hesitate to place a hand on his shoulder and drive on. “You don’t have to be the most talented person in the world to be the most important to someone.”

  
Seconds passed before they both pulled away, and she simpered at Hajime’s reddened cheeks. She must admit that her last sentence was incredibly cheesy, and she was doubling over in her laughter again. Hajime soon joined in, forgetting their passionate words for a brief moment.

  
Then they quieted down, and Chiaki clutched the straps of her backpack tighter. The silence was a comfortable one, one that had been achieved after such a vigorous dispute.

  
It was Hajime who initiated their meeting to end as he clutched his own backpack that was stuffed with video games. “I guess I’m going to head back up to the classroom. I think. . . I’m going to try to talk to my classmates some more. Maybe I’ll even play some games with them as a class. And I’ll try to remember what you told me. About talent not being everything.”

  
Chiaki nodded happily, unable to conceal her jubilation that she had changed Hajime’s mind about Hope’s Peak. “Tell me how it goes tomorrow! I want to hear everything!”

  
“I’m warning you right now, expect to hear some crazy stories. And I want to hear some from you too,” he added as an afterthought, his smile only widening as hers dissipated.

  
“What do you mean?”

  
“Well, if I can befriend my classmates, so can you.”

  
Chiaki shook her head. “Not really, the students there. . .”

“They. . .?”

  
She had nothing bad to really say about her class. Plus, any constructive criticism she did have would be deemed invalid because she never directly talked with one of them anyways and wouldn’t know if any of her suspicions were true. What would happen if she actually tried?

Maybe she wouldn’t act as antisocial as she thought she was.

  
“Never mind,” she dismissed. “I’ll try talking to my classmates too.”

  
If she didn’t, she would be the hypocritical little recluse she always was. And she was determined to change that, if it meant different results.

  
They promised each other to meet again at the same time tomorrow, and bid each other goodbye.  

* * *

  “Why do you keep playing that stupid battleship game?” Natsumi whined as she sat at the edge of her desk to peer over Chiaki’s. “Is it because you want to impress that boy?”

  
“What boy?” Sato interjected, eyes gleaming with delight at the prospect. Natsumi silently glowered at her, snapping her gaze back to Chiaki before she could notice the hateful exchange of glances.

  
Chiaki smiled to herself as she beat her own high score in Gala Omega, a score that could’ve rivaled Hajime’s if she garnered a few more thousand points. Once the last of her ships were finally eliminated, she looked up at the two impatient expressions of her friends.

  
Her only ones, but they were just enough for her. It was mere coincidence that Natsumi had decided to approach her the first day of her transferring simply because she “looked” more interesting than the other students there. And it was also simply coincidence that she had accidentally passed by Sato when she was angrily arguing at Natsumi about some matter over their middle school life.

  
But it wasn’t coincidence when she pulled them both aside and convinced them that maybe they should at least tolerate each other in school. If not, she had threatened, some other student or teacher would see them and they’d both be expelled. She had never actually implied threats to anyone before that incident, but she had a feeling that they would’ve dismissed any of her encouraging words of friendship. She would later regret in the following months for not even attempting to brighten their vengeful spirits.

  
Her threat of expulsion was believable, considering the fact that the Reserve Course students weren’t treated as fairly as the Main Course students. She had attempted to visit Hajime the other day for lunch, but some bulky guard stopped her and told her to “get back in place, you have no right to be with the Main Course”. . . or something along those lines.

  
She tried not to pay them any mind, and focused on the time she spent with Hajime, Natsumi, and Sato instead. She guessed that Natsumi and Sato were still clawing at each other’s throats when she wasn’t looking, but she found it courteous of them to hold themselves back when in her vicinity. Perhaps, she foolishly hoped, they’d be so used to pretending that they’d actually get over their differences. It was a half-baked idea, but she continued to feign ignorance until then.

  
“Are you talking about that boy who sits at the fountain?” Sato ventured.

  
“Well, who else would it be, dipshit?” Natsumi retorted, then sent an apologetic look to Chiaki, who was frowning at her usage of words. Chiaki knew that her domineering nature was part of her personality, and now she found the profanity as more of a light-hearted tease. Sato, on the other hand, would continuously grimace and admonish Natsumi each time she’d curse.

Which was often.

  
Before Sato could begin her reprimand, though, Chiaki piped up. “He introduced me to Gala Omega, but I’ve been improving on my own time too. These games are all pretty fun, I must admit!” Her eyes gleamed as she animatedly tried to explain to them how fulfilling it was to be manning the screens.  
Natsumi laughed, an amused one. “Ah, so you’re becoming some nerd now, I see.”

  
Chiaki’s cheeks flushed, but she wasn’t exactly embarrassed by the coining of the term. She didn’t particularly care if she were a nerd, if it were defined as being enthusiastic for these games.

  
Hajime had influenced her greatly over the past few weeks. With each passing day, her excitement would grow and grow until she was practically bouncing up and down when she met up with him nowadays. Having a partner to explore the endless variation of games out there was a dream come true for her.

  
A dream she hadn’t even known was one until recently. She would briefly ponder on what would’ve happened if she opened at least one of her gifts and had gotten sucked into the world of gaming sooner. But she didn’t have to ponder for long; Hajime would always be commenting on some other game that she’d ardently join in.

  
“That’s rude, Kuzuryuu,” Sato chided, and Natsumi rolled her eyes sarcastically.

  
“Looks like Chiaki doesn’t care.”

  
Chiaki attempted to veer them away from the beginnings of an argument and tried to show them how unaffected she was from it. “It’s fine, Sato. Natsumi’s right, I am becoming a nerd for these games.”

  
Sato’s eyes softened slightly, her endearing expression returning as she gazed at her friend. “Well, I’m happy you’ve found your passion, Nanami-san.”

  
Her passion?

  
Natsumi quickly joined in, for once agreeing with Sato’s words. “I remember when I first saw you, you looked so bored all the time. And now you bounce around about some elf named Zelda and his troubles capturing a princess.”

  
“Link is actually the protagonist, and he’s not an elf! He’s from the Hylian race, and he was created by Goddesses!” She corrected, cheeks puffing out in her signature pout.

  
“See? If I had mentioned this a week ago, you would’ve thought that what I was saying was correct.”

  
“But,” Sato chimed in, “everyone kinda knows that Link is the main character for the game Legend of Zelda. Even non-gamers.”

  
Chiaki, having quickly forgiven Natsumi for the common mistake, just continued to cheekily grin. “When I first received the cartridge for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I licked it,” she admitted sheepishly, and the two other girls questioned their friendship with Chiaki for the fifteenth time that day.

  
“Did we hear you correctly?”

  
By now, all three of them were giggling at the image of Chiaki experimentally darting her tongue out along the surface of a game cartridge. Her passion may have just been escalating into an obsession if it had gone that far.

  
“I didn’t do it to be weird!” She confirmed, easing their worries. “There were rumors that Nintendo Switch cartridges tasted bad! So I wanted to be a good gamer and see whether or not those rumors were actually true.”

  
“Were they?" 

  
“They tasted horrible,” she deadpanned, and just before their teacher could scold them for chatting up their class time instead of paying attention during class, the school bell signaling the end of the day rang incessantly.

  
All three girls immediately commenced on shoving their books into their bags and heading for the door. Chiaki hadn’t been paying much attention in class nowadays. She was too busy attentively finishing up a game level that she wouldn’t be writing down what polysaccharides were comprised of. She knew, in the back of her mind, she should’ve been paying more attention in class because her parents were paying millions of dollars each year to allow her to attend the prestigious Academy.

  
But she also knew they had hundreds of millions to spare. She nonetheless promised herself to pay more attention tomorrow.

  
“Bye Chiaki, see you tomorrow!” Both Natsumi and Sato chimed in before heading out the doorway. Chiaki waved a hasty goodbye before racing towards the same doorway, profusely apologizing to anyone she may have pushed in the midst of her excitement.

  
As she left the school, she could glimpse a familiar tuft of brown hair that was oddly suspended in the air. The plethora of students she was unfortunately caught in the center in didn’t allow her to catch Hajime’s face until she was swept in front of him.

  
This was the first time she saw Hajime waiting for her at the Reserve Course entrance. She usually found him patiently seated at the fountain, the water cascading down its turrets and lightly spraying the seat next to him. The one that was reserved specifically for her.

  
She didn’t conceal her expression of pleasant surprise as she greeted him hello for the first time that day. “Hajime, let’s head to the fountain!” She suggested, not noticing the odd way he patted his back pocket.

  
He obeyed, and they sat in their usual seats. “I don’t mean to sound as if I’m bragging, but I think I can beat your score at Gala Omega today,” she promised him in her jocular mood.

  
“You were extremely close to beating it yesterday,” he reminded her as he switched his console from standby to on. He had probably been playing it with his class today, but she didn’t hesitate to ask him how his day went anyways.

  
“I convinced my classmates to play some multiplayer games together without it resulting in an explosion,” he started, and she felt her own smile growing when she saw how self-satisfied he seemed. “It was pretty intense, especially since Mioda-san, she’s the one who likes rocking with her edgy guitar,” Chiaki nodded to demonstrate she remembered who that was, “kept screaming along. Owari and Nekomaru broke at least five of their controllers. . . they must have been winning if they were that stressed,” he commented sarcastically as Chiaki chuckled.

  
“But overall, it was a good day. There were no aphrodisiacs slipped in our food either, so that was just the cherry on top,” he concluded as he inserted the Gala Omega cartridge on his handheld. “I’m still trying to get used to such a weird bunch, but they’re not as bad as I originally thought.”

  
She struggled not to tease him for being right, but ended up snickering anyways. “I wish I could meet your classmates,” she wistfully said, her hope of that situation occurring being very low. The Academy wouldn’t allow a Reserve Course student such as herself spend even one day with them. She was in the Reserve Course for a reason, that was her designated place.

  
He stayed silent as they both began to choose how many battleships they were going to battle with. “Let’s make it interesting. Only one ship,” Hajime dared, and Chiaki reluctantly started the game with just one sole ship. She had always practiced with five of them. She was now less inclined to the possibility that she may actually beat Hajime today with even a small restriction as that.

  
Before either of them could wish the other luck, the game was initiated through the simple jingle that rang throughout their minds. Chiaki reluctantly trudged through and shot through numerous ships with only her sole battleship, just before thousands of others would inundate her screen and keep her occupied again.

  
Two hours elapsed without either of them exchanging a word, too busy trying to keep their ship from crashing. Finally, she overheard a deep sigh and the tune that accompanied the Game Over screen. But it wasn’t her sigh nor her screen that was blinking from her loss, much to Hajime’s chagrin. She gathered a few more points before her ship exploded, and she blamed it on the momentary burst of happiness that imploded within her from having acknowledged her first victory.

  
A few minutes passed in complete silence, the only sound being emanated throughout their fountain site being the cheerful chirping of birds hopping from tree to tree. Chiaki could hear some students exiting from the side door of the Academy building, perhaps leaving late from an extracurricular activity rather than an extended class. But other than that, neither Chiaki nor Hajime moved.

  
Chiaki didn’t count her first victory against him as anything largely monumental. She had been finding herself caught up in the rapid succession of rounds that she probably wouldn’t have even known Hajime lost if he had his console on mute. She hadn’t even been particularly trying to beat him, since she hadn’t expected to even achieve it and was just teasing him anyways.

  
But now she was awkwardly trying to urge her pusillanimous self to at least mention to Hajime that his loss wasn’t that much of a big deal. She couldn’t help but recall how he had unabashedly confessed to her that he had been brought up with the wrongful mindset that talent was everything. Was he having second thoughts about his Ultimate Talent?

  
She really hoped not. When she had first encountered him, her mind was riddled with thoughts cannily similar to his, but for different reasons. She kept kicking herself for not possessing a talent, because having a specific talent meant she was being passionate about something. And she, who at the time harbored no passions except the passion to not feel lonely in a room crowded with people, wanted to know what she could be good at. Everyone was good at something, that’s why people could connect together with their similar interests.

  
But then she was swept away by this boy who had his talent dubbed the Ultimate Gamer simply because tried hard for it. He wanted to stand out among that same room crowded with people. He wanted to be different, not similar to everyone else.

  
And now here they both were, both gripping their handheld consoles as if it were their lifeline. She couldn’t help but glance at Hajime, a bit fearful for his reaction that she just couldn’t predict.

His current expression was unreadable with the hundreds of emotions he could’ve been displaying with the determined furrow in his brow and the downturning of his lips. Was he angry at her? Disappointed at himself for not winning as usual? Shocked that the average girl he met was beating his Ultimate score? Or simply in deep cogitation?

  
“Hajime, that was fun,” she broke the pregnant silence meekly, hearing the shakiness of her own voice. She shouldn’t be so afraid, she thought to herself, since Hajime was her best friend.

And best friends don’t just ditch you because you win from a friendly competition, right?

  
She wouldn’t know. She never had a best friend as him before. Someone who had her heart racing and who tolerated her quirks. Sometimes she was afraid she wasn’t conveying things correctly, that her jokes were too odd from the lack of socializing. But it was as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. She didn’t want to lose him because of something like this.

  
But then he opened his mouth and exhaled a breathy chuckle that she would’ve mistaken for a scoff if she hadn’t strained her ears. “It was very fun, actually. It’s been a while since I tried so hard to actually match up to my opponent.” He stretched his arms out, and she caught a glimpse of his screen. Hajime had already powered his off. Was he not planning to play another game with her?

  
She tried not to let it get to her head as she felt the relief flood within her soul and release her from the heart-clenching anxiety. She felt much more relaxed now that she knew he wasn’t holding it against her. She wouldn’t have known what to do if he had. Although Hajime was the closest friend she ever had, she also quickly understood why she was dishing out most of her large allowance to buy a new game Hajime would mention the day before or one she simply found an interest in by herself.

  
Her growing love for these games were bringing her a type of happiness that she hadn’t known could be invested before. Sato’s words bounced around in her head as her grin widened. Perhaps these video games were her passion in life.

  
“Oh, seems like you’re pretty happy that you beat me,” Hajime said, and she gave him her signature expression of puffing her cheeks out in a pout. “Kidding,” he added, and she giggled from obviously knowing that beforehand.

  
“But you were actually having more fun than me playing Gala Omega, I think. Seems like you’re starting to like all these games I’m showing you?” He guessed accurately, and she nodded vigorously.

  
“I can’t believe I hadn’t tried playing a video game before, Hinata-kun! And. . . I want to thank you for it. If you hadn’t introduced to me all these games, I wouldn’t have known what I was missing out on,” she said as she shyly averted her gaze from his and powered her own console off. She supposed it was fine if they didn’t play another game, because that Gala Omega round was the longest round they had ever played.

  
“I don’t really have to be thanked for showing you some game. What’s your favorite?” He questioned, and she didn’t even have to hesitate.

  
“Gala Omega, definitely! I can’t say why, it’s just so interesting to play. It’s so simple but I can’t take my eyes off my screen when I’m shooting the ships in a rhythm. And the rhythm changes depending on which direction the enemy ships can circle, too! And beating the bosses is just a simple matter of adapting to the shooting pattern as well.”

  
She shut herself up once she caught sight of his face. It was the same endearing expression Sato usually wore when speaking to her friends, but there was something different in his gaze. Something she was more than curious about, but was still afraid of the unknown outcome.

  
“Hey, is Nanami-san actually getting embarrassed from talking about video games?” Hajime laughed as she turned away from him.

  
“There’s no need to be embarrassed. It’s becoming your passion isn’t it?”

  
There it was again. That word. Passion. She liked how it sounded when coupled with the word game.

  
He caught sight of her small smile and commented on it before she turned back to face him. “I was afraid that when you were going to tell me what your favorite game was, it could’ve been something else.”

  
Why had he been afraid for her simple opinion? She knew Xevious was Hajime’s favorite, so was he hoping that she would like a game of the retro genre too? She still couldn’t understand until she saw the small object he had retrieved from his back pocket.

  
Her eyes lit up, reminiscent of a bright lantern coruscating in the darkened night, and she felt the emotion in her chest swell up in her chest until she felt like it was going to burst. She had never felt such sheer happiness from receiving a gift before, and she had received hundreds of gifts from her parents.

  
But this gift, it felt as if it were valuable not because of its monetary worth, but because Hajime knew how much something simple like this would mean to her.

  
He was holding a white hair clip, shaped as the battleship from Gala Omega. It glinted under the glare of the evening sun, shining its warm hues down on the object. She uncertainly placed her two forefingers on the hair clip, brushing her fingers along all of its uneven ridges and colors she would never forget.

  
“I won it at some international competition a few years ago. I never paid it much mind, because I could never picture myself wearing it. Unless it was to clip down my ahoge,” she laughed at his joke, a genuine one that was riddled with emotion, “and so I thought of gifting it to you. You’ve been playing more games lately, and I knew you were having a hell of a time with it, and I wanted to have something to commemorate how much we’ve played together, but I didn’t know whether or not this would’ve been good enough or if you were just playing games with me because it was my Talent and you thought I might not want to do anything else. . .”

  
“I love it, Hajime,” she whispered, halting his awkwardly insecure rant from advancing any further and embarrassing both of them. He didn’t have to feel as if this gift was inadequate. It was perfectly her, and she didn’t know how he had chosen something like this for her.

  
She swore he had the ability to read her thoughts sometimes. Or maybe she was wearing her heart on her sleeve and he was the only one who could read the sloppy cursive encasing her tightly-woven heart so perfectly. God, she actually felt like tearing up. Sometimes, she thought that maybe he understood her better than she understood herself.

  
And Hajime, Hajime was still as unreadable as he had been the first day they met. His expression was shaped into a contemplative one, and she never knew what he was always thinking about so deeply. He could’ve been thinking a million different things in that mind of his.

  
She wanted to find out what he was thinking right now, at this very moment, when she clasped her hand around his to grab the hair clip. He was blushing profusely, and she was compelled to ask why.

  
“I. . . nothing. It’s just. . . you called me by Hajime for the first time,” he tried to shrug it off as if having leapt to first name basis wasn’t such a big deal to him, but she could see by his reddened cheeks that he clearly thought otherwise.

  
She wouldn’t have even known that she had called him Hajime if he hadn’t pointed it out. She was so caught up by the lovely gift he had gotten her that she blurted it out as if it were the most natural thing in the world. As if she had called him by his first name a thousand times prior to this time.

  
“You can call me Chiaki if you’d like,” she said, and he inhaled sharply at her suggestion. How cute, she thought, how cute of him to be so moved by something as calling her by her first name. Cute enough that the unfamiliar swelling in her heart finally imploded within her chest and spread throughout her body.

  
Hajime shakily exhaled as he gathered his audacity to just pronounce a name comprised of only six letters. “Okay, Chiaki,” he simply replied.

  
Oh.

  
So that’s why he had been acting as if she’d unstrapped her bra in front of him. The way her name rolled off his tongue had her tingling all the way to the tips of her toes. She wanted to hear him say it over and over again. Wanted him to say it thousands of more times. She would still probably not be satisfied.

  
A sudden urge washed over her entire being, and she desired to just lean over and tell him all about the feelings she was slowly developing for him. This was the one thing she knew she couldn’t just have him guess on, no matter how well he could read her. This was her first time having such intense feelings for someone that she didn’t know how could she convey it, and just decided to settle on placing a chaste kiss on his left cheek.

  
He was reminiscent of a bright red tomato once her lips parted and she moved away. He lifted a hand from where she placed her kiss on his cheek, his shock evident.

  
She pretended to have not seen his reaction and smugly clipped her bangs away from her forehead with the new one she would cherish forever. Then she grabbed his hand and raced outside of the school grounds.

  
Later, he’d ask her if their little trip to their arcade was her expression of gratitude or an actual date. She’d shrug innocently and respond, “Maybe, maybe not.” He’d sputter something about how she shouldn’t tease him on something as sensitive as that, but they’d both end up laughing about it anyways because that’s what best friends who were in love do.

  
Best friends who were, perhaps, tragically in love.

In the following months that would elapse, one of them would be found by the other, heaving their last breath and coated in their own blood from being so unjustly executed.      

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a sucker for fates being set from the start. Was Chiaki set to meet Hajime? Absolutely the fuck yes.


End file.
